MetaFilter posts tagged with england and Germanyhttp://www.metafilter.com/tags/england+Germany
Posts tagged with 'england' and 'Germany' at MetaFilter.Fri, 10 Oct 2014 11:05:26 -0800Fri, 10 Oct 2014 11:05:26 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60American mothers around the worldhttp://www.metafilter.com/143488/American%2Dmothers%2Daround%2Dthe%2Dworld
Joanna Goddard has been interviewing American women raising their children in other countries, to hear how motherhood around the world compared and contrasted with motherhood in America. She's talked to parents in
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/07/10-surprising-things-about-parenting-in_15.html'>Norway</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/07/10-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Japan</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/07/13-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Congo</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/11-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Northern Ireland</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/9-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Mexico</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/11-surprising-things-about-parenting-in_26.html'>Abu Dhabi</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/12-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>India</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/07/15-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>England</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/07/16-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>China</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/07/20-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Germany</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/08/14-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Australia</a>,
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/08/13-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>Turkey</a>, and
<a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2014/08/13-surprising-things-about-parenting-in_25.html'>Chile</a>. As Goddard notes in the <a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.ca/2013/07/american-mothers-around-world.html'>introduction to the series</a>:
<blockquote>
We wanted to hear from these individual mothers about their particular experiences, but of course everyone's impressions, circumstances, social-economic levels and lifestyles are different, so these interviews are in no way meant to explain, describe or reduce entire cultures. (I can't imagine if someone tried to explain America as a whole!) These interviews are more about women's personal stories and observations.
</blockquote>
There's also an interview with <a href='http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2014/10/24-surprising-things-about-parenting-in.html'>mothers who moved to the U.S. from abroad</a>.
<small><a href="http://kottke.org/14/10/parenting-around-the-world">via</a></small> tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.143488Fri, 10 Oct 2014 11:05:26 -0800Banknote of the yearICI FINIT LA CVLTVRE ALLEMANDEhttp://www.metafilter.com/142217/ICI%2DFINIT%2DLA%2DCVLTVRE%2DALLEMANDE
On this day one hundred years ago, Imperial German soldiers who <a href="http://www.oorlogsdagboekleuven.be/inkwartieringen/">had peacefully arrived</a> in the Belgian city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuven">Leuven</a> (Fr: Louvain), having taken hostages and accepted<a href="http://www.oorlogsdagboekleuven.be/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Affiche_19140821_maatregelen.jpg"> the parole of its mayor</a> <a href="http://www.oorlogsdagboekleuven.be/oproep-tot-kalmte/">on behalf of its citizens</a>, <a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/louvain_judicialreport.htm">without warning set fire to the city and massacred its inhabitants</a> forever altering the city, its university's library, and <a href="http://ww1daily.com/burning-library-leuven-international-response/">the course of the war.</a><blockquote><li><a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/louvain_judicialreport.htm">Belgian Judicial Report on the Sacking of Louvain in August 1914</a></li><li><a href="http://ww1daily.com/burning-library-leuven-international-response/">The destruction and rebuilding of the Louvain Library: claim and counterclaim</a></li></blockquote> The five day orgy of violence was likely touched off by nervous sentries shooting at each other having been spooked by <a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/maps/graphics/maps_04_belgium1914_(1600).jpg">a successful but halted Belgian cavalry charge from the Northwest in Malines (Fl: Mechelen)</a> rather than excitable Belgians. Once the first shot was fired however, the 10,000+ armed teenagers who had been bombarded with rumors of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francs-tireurs">francs tireur</a> (Francophone minutemen) snipers behind every bush began to systematically <a href="http://www.oorlogsdagboekleuven.be/leopoldstraat-geplunderd/">burn everything of value that they could not loot or drink</a> to punish the town including the university's ancient library filled with its whole collections of unique books and uncopied mediaeval manuscripts. One German officer speaking outside of an official capacity to the American diplomat Hugh Gibson while the sacking was still continuing <a href="http://ww1daily.com/burning-library-leuven-international-response/">said</a><blockquote>"It is necessary that Leuven will serve as warning and deterrent for generations to come, so all that might hear of its fate might learn to respect Germany... We shall make this place a desert. It will be hard to find where Leuven used to stand. For generations people will come here to see what we have done. And it will teach them to think twice before they resist her."</blockquote><a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/louvain_judicialreport.htm">This retrospective judicial report on the incident</a> is euphemistically circumspect about the fate of women in Leuven, and what exactly the largely protestant Germans did to Catholic priests, in the style of the time.
For the 'other side' of the story, <a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/louvain_germanstatement.htm">this is the official German statement on what happened</a> and <a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/kaiserdumdumbullets.htm">a telegram to Wilson by the Kaiser that mentions it</a>, as well as <a href="http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/PDFs/Sack%20of%20Louvain.pdf">a written debate held after the war</a>.
The incident, with the fates of <a href="http://www.martyrcities.be/martyr-cities">the other Martyr cities Aarschot and Dendermonde</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_Belgium#mediaviewer/File:Remember_Belgium.jpg">was</a> a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_Belgium">large part</a> of what brought the US into the war and kept it popular in the UK. Pieces of soap were sold for the benefit of Belgian refugees with the burned University library on one side and the intentionally shelled Cathedral at Rheims on the other, such that as you used it the ruins would wash away, and Louvain became a popular name for girls. The sacking was so damaging to global opinion of the German war effort that it features significantly in the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25122278.pdf?acceptTC=true">"Proclamation To The Civilized World By Professors of Germany" also known as "The Manifesto of the Ninety-Three"</a> as it was signed by the 93 most prominent German academics (<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E2D61639E133A25751C0A9659C946095D6CF">"The 93 Today" published in 1923 after the war</a>).
The burning of the library was also kept in mind when war finally ended, where one of the reparations listed in the <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/versailles_menu.asp">Treaty of Versailles</a> was money and books from German Universities to rebuild the library. After the collapse of the German economy and the rampant inflation caused by the rolling default on war loans as well as the more substantial reparations, what ended up being available was no where close to enough, but luckily, <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19191006-01.2.2#">societies had already formed</a> in <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19191009&id=n7caAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iUkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6543,3422855">America to fund the rebuilding within weeks of the sacking</a>. Whitney Warren, architect of the Grand Central Station and the Biltmore Hotel in New York, was hired to build a beautiful library with largely American money and books largely donated by American universities, but conflict arose as the library neared completion.
While the library itself was already not exactly thematically neutral, decorated as it was with the American eagle, Italian she-wolf, Belgian lion, British unicorn, and French cock, as well as <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WgV8eU8jIoM/S79anls9eeI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/KN6FHbUbrpQ/s1600/Bibliotheek+Leuven+04.JPG">the German Eagle getting stabbed by the Virgin Mary with a sword</a>, university officials quickly became administratively inclined to get on with the business of collaborating with German colleagues and leave the war behind them in the spirit of the new peace. They ended up coming head to head with young student veterans and American donors over an inscription that was planned from the beginning for the banister of the main staircase:<a href="http://ww1daily.com/burning-library-leuven-international-response/"> FURORE TEUTONICO DIRUTA, DONO AMERICANO RESTITUTA roughly translated from Latin, 'Demolished by German wrath, rebuilt with American gifts.' As a neutrally blank banister was being installed, Felix Morren, a young student foreman working on the site lifted up the massive stone work and threw it to the floor, shattering it. Then, five years later in 1933 as Hitler ramped up his persecution of German Jews he returned to the site and threw down its blank replacement in protest.</a> However, even all of this effort by administrators to separate the library's function as a memorial from its function as their library was not enough to save the it during the next war, now filled again with priceless American and German books. Even though books were still being delivered from German universities during the war, right up until the point it was destroyed, the German army again fired it with everything still inside after they entered the city. After the war in the 40s and 50s, the library was rebuilt yet again with more American money, using the same plans - <a href="http://static.skynetblogs.be/media/163456/dyn010_original_500_333_jpeg__fe62e0df3d5d17fe928f1943743f00d3.jpg">gorgeous flammable woodwork</a>, <a href="https://centrallibkuleuven.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/dsc00034.jpg">big beautiful delicate windows</a>, and all - and filled again with more rare and priceless books from many of the same universities.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUNQcIcn8G0">Marie Legrand of Leuven remembers the Fire of Leuven</a> (slow clear French with Flemish subtitles)
If any of you come to Belgium I'd be happy to show you around to where the good fries and the good beer are. tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.142217Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:50:11 -0800BlasdelbThe three Chicken Wars, and their (less than) lasting impactshttp://www.metafilter.com/141635/The%2Dthree%2DChicken%2DWars%2Dand%2Dtheir%2Dless%2Dthan%2Dlasting%2Dimpacts
In the records of human conflicts, there are at least three Chicken Wars. Two left little mark on the world at large, and the third resulted in some strange work-arounds for heavy tariffs. The first was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_War">Wojna kokosza, the Chicken or Hen War of 1537</a>, when an anti-royalist and anti-absolutist rokosz (rebellion) by the Polish nobility resulted in near-extinction of local "kokosz" (an egg laying hen), but little else. The second was an odd spin-off of the more serious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Quadruple_Alliance">War of the Quarduple Alliance</a> that lasted from 1717 to 1720. Though most of the activity happened in Europe, there were some battles in North America. <a href="https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfc02">The Texas manifestation was the capture of some chickens by French forces from a Spanish mission, and a costly overreaction by Spanish religious and military men</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax">third Chicken War</a> was a duel of tariffs during the Cold War, with the only lasting casualty being <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/cars/did-chickens-cure-or-kill-us-pickup-trucks/2013/08/07/4cb016d0-ff83-11e2-8294-0ee5075b840d_story.html">the availability of foreign-made light trucks in the United States</a>. There aren't many resources in English on the Polish Chicken War of 1537, beyond Wikipedia (linked above) and <a href="http://polandian.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/what-happened-in-polish-history-part-iii/">a less than serious retelling of events</a>.
There is <a href="http://marksimner.me.uk/the-war-of-the-quadruple-alliance/">much more documentation and description of The War of the Quadruple Alliance</a>, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Pensacola_%281719%29">the French capture of the settlement of Pensacola in the Spanish colony of Florida</a> in 1719, and the efforts <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=KOPdX2qaVrkC&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false">the Spanish to keep the French out of New Mexico</a>, and <a href="http://www.texasescapes.com/AllThingsHistorical/Chicken-War-AM307.htm">the story of the Chicken War of 1719 is short in duration and detail</a>.
The lasting impact came from the 1963 "Chicken War" or more appropriately, the "Chicken Tax." Plentiful poultry from the US was flooding Europe, France and West Germany responded by placing a significant tariff on chickens from the US. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081222081102/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874857,00.html">The discussions of chickens started under President Kennedy</a>, but it was <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=75178">President Lyndon B. Johnson who issued the proclamation that would amend the tariff schedule on potato starch, brandy, dextrine and soluble or chemically treated starches, and automobile trucks</a>.
Much of the 1960s have faded, including the increased tariffs on starches and brandy, but not the chicken tax. Back in the 1970s, the <a href="http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2014/04/current-negotiations-could-end-chicken-tax.html">Chevrolet Luv and Ford Courier were built overseas, and a bed was added after they were imported, but customs officials closed that loophole in 1980</a>. More recently, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB125357990638429655">Ford's Transit Connect vans, which are made in Europe, are imported to the US, where posterior side windows are and rear seating is removed</a>, and the vans are converted from passenger vans into more utilitarian vehicles, <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20130923/global/309239960/ford-gets-a-scolding-on-chicken-tax-maneuver">to the displeasure of U.S. Customs and Border Protection</a>.
<a href="http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/08/chicken-tax-tariff-may-bar-u-s-importing-of-holden-commodore-ute/">A number of trucks that were once made and sold in the US and Canada are no longer available in North America</a>, due to the trucks now being made overseas. <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/tag/chicken+tax/">The Chicken tax is still discussed a good deal</a>, with <a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/3012614/huizenga-wto-ruling-could-lead-chicken-tax-repeal">hope for the tax being repealed coming up quite often</a>, with <a href="http://www.carnewscafe.com/2014/04/25/trade-talks-heat-chicken-tax-table-matters/">perennial hope that this is the year for the tax to roll back</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2014:site.141635Mon, 04 Aug 2014 11:52:24 -0800filthy light thief"Save one life, save the world."http://www.metafilter.com/134162/Save%2Done%2Dlife%2Dsave%2Dthe%2Dworld
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0">In 1988, Nicholas Winton appeared on the BBC program "That's Life."</a> <a href="http://www.powerofgood.net/story.php">Background</a>: Mr. Winton organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
"Winton, then a young stockbroker, began a British office for refugee children and forged passports, visas, and adoption papers to get 7- to 9-year-olds out of German territory and into homes in Britain and Scotland. 'It wasn't getting the children out which was difficult — it was that no one else tried.' And how did he deal with the Nazis' bureaucratic objections? "I told them politely in German, <a href="http://nymag.com/movies/articles/02/09/wintongood.htm">'Go to hell.'</a>"
About the program, from the UK Telegraph: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/6138441/Sir-Nicholas-Winton-the-British-Schindler-meets-the-Holocaust-survivors-he-helped-save.html">Sir Nicholas Winton meets the Holocaust survivors he helped save.</a>
NPR: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95111848">Finding A Hero Amid Fading Memories</a>.
More from <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Winton.html">Jewish Virtual Library</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton">Wikipedia</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.134162Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:03:14 -0800zarqWWI in Colorhttp://www.metafilter.com/133382/WWI%2Din%2DColor
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShpYEml9Sk&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">World War I in Color</a> is a documentary designed to make the Great War come alive for a 21st-century audience. The events of 1914-18 are authoritatively narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who presents the military and political overview, while interviews with historians add different perspectives in six 48 minute installments annotated within. <blockquote><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eShpYEml9Sk&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Catastrophe"</a> This first episode looks at the fact that between 1914 and 1918, 65 million men took up arms. Ten million were killed and 20 million were emotionally and physically incapacitated. The war ushered in new terminologies, new and massive weapons, and a scale of artillery barrages never before imagined.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xhPbWf6MI&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Slaughter in the Trenches"</a> This episode looks at trench warfare on the Western Front, which was at stalemate in 1915. Communications proved to be a major drawback for both sides, as messages were sent by runners - who invariably faced death. Two simultaneous battles to push back the Germans were launched at Artois by the French, and by the British at Festubert in May 1915. Both failed and brought the realisation that such massive casualties could not be sustained. With a need for more troops, Lord Kitchener went about a recruitment campaign that amassed some one million volunteers. The new volunteer soldiers lacked the discipline of the regulars, and were regarded with some disdain.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPkjlg5q8o&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Blood in the Air"</a> In the battles of WWI a new theatre of war was to emerge -- the sky. This new warfare was to prove just as deadly as the trenches, where pilots flew into battle with as little as five hours flying experience, with an average life expectancy of 11 days in 1914. Initially the aircraft replaced hot air balloons as a reconnaissance device, spying and photographing deep behind enemy lines, but in 1915 aviation pioneer Fokker revolutionised the aircraft as a weapon when he synchronised a machine gun with a propeller -- allowing German pilots to annihilate French and British planes.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezm5c5zd6Zo&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Killers of the Sea"</a> In this episode we discover that there was only one major clash of fleets in World War 1. Instead, the war at sea was one of blockades and sinkings and a small but feared U-boat. By August 1914 Germany and Britain were building massive and expensive warships - the dreadnoughts. The British controlled the North Sea, and built up supplies by commandeering all goods heading for Germany. Britain's survival depended on keeping her trade routes open, and for this reason Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant shipping.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JA5gnJpvY0&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Mayhem on the Eastern Front"</a> When war broke out in 1914 the Eastern Front campaign moved swiftly. Austrian troops invaded Serbia, and Russia, as Serbia's ally, invaded both Germany and Austria. The Austrians quickly retreated, demoralised by the success of the Russian advance. Yet against the Germans, 50,000 Russians were killed or wounded at the battle of Tannenberg. German Generals Hindenberg and Erich von Ludendorff, spurred on by their easy victories against the Russians, dreamed of an extended German empire to the East.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDZpvlDac-8&list=PLD45C02E33B4F0ECB">"Victory and Despair"</a> For the Allies, 1918 proved to be the costliest year of the war. On the Western Front 2 million British and 3 million French were either captured, wounded or killed - over a few miles of French and Belgian mud. On 21 March 1918, General von Ludendorff attacked along a 64-mile front which was to be the greatest attack yet seen in modern industrialized warfare. The Germans advanced 20 miles in 14 days, and von Ludendorff set his sights on Paris and victory. Field Marshall Haig rallied his British troops to fight to the end. Casualties ran at 350 000 for both sides, and the toll taken on von Ludendorff's troops had overstretched his war machine.</blockquote> tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.133382Thu, 31 Oct 2013 03:50:45 -0800BlasdelbJust remember to obey the red man and get some qualifications...http://www.metafilter.com/127992/Just%2Dremember%2Dto%2Dobey%2Dthe%2Dred%2Dman%2Dand%2Dget%2Dsome%2Dqualifications
<a href="http://venturevillage.eu/how-to-be-german-part-1">How to be German in 20 easy steps</a>; also, from the same author: <a href="http://venturevillage.eu/how-to-be-english">how to be English</a>.
Elsewhere: <a href="http://www.ichwerdeeinberliner.com/">how to be a really hip German</a>. tag:metafilter.com,2013:site.127992Sat, 11 May 2013 16:09:49 -0800acbYou eat too fast, and I understand why your antidyspeptic pill-makers cover your walls, your forests even, with their advertisements.http://www.metafilter.com/117651/You%2Deat%2Dtoo%2Dfast%2Dand%2DI%2Dunderstand%2Dwhy%2Dyour%2Dantidyspeptic%2Dpillmakers%2Dcover%2Dyour%2Dwalls%2Dyour%2Dforests%2Deven%2Dwith%2Dtheir%2Dadvertisements
In 1891 author and lecturer "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_O%27Rell">Max O'Rell</a>" (being the pen name of one Léon Paul Blouet) published an amusing account of his travels through the States and Eastern Canada - "<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32261/32261-h/32261-h.htm">A Frenchman In America</a>" - that, along with the charming illustrations, reflect on then popular national stereotypes and character and is presented on Project Gutenberg in its entirely. (<a href="http://beatonna.tumblr.com">via</a>) tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.117651Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:36:40 -0800The WhelkAnimated Histories of European Footballhttp://www.metafilter.com/116667/Animated%2DHistories%2Dof%2DEuropean%2DFootball
In advance of Euro 2012, the Guardian has made <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/series/euro-2012-animated-histories">animated histories</a> of six of the competitors: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/may/30/euro-2012-england-animated-history">England</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/may/31/euro-2012-animated-history-spain-video">Spain</a>, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/jun/01/euro-2012-republic-of-ireland-animated-history">Republic of Ireland</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/jun/04/euro-2012-italy-animated-history-video">Italy</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/jun/05/euro-2012-germany-animated-history-video">Germany</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/jun/06/euro-2012-france-animated-history-video">France</a>. (Autoplay video in last six links.) tag:metafilter.com,2012:site.116667Wed, 06 Jun 2012 06:03:21 -0800hoylandBletchley Park WWII Code-breaking Machines Rebuilt from Memorieshttp://www.metafilter.com/104057/Bletchley%2DPark%2DWWII%2DCodebreaking%2DMachines%2DRebuilt%2Dfrom%2DMemories
Early 1940: British police listening for radio transmissions from German spies within the UK pick up weird signals, and pass them to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park">Bletchley Park</a>, the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment in WWII. The source of these German messages is an unknown machine, which the Brits dub <a href="http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/pods/tunytalk_3.html">Tunny</a> (10 minute video with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sale">Tony Sale</a> describing the Tunny). August 30, 1941: German operators send two very similar messages with the same key, providing insight into the encryption scheme. By January 1942, British cryptographers deduced the workings of the German code machines, sight unseen. The British were able to create their own Tunny emulators to decrypt messages sent by German High Command. After the war, these and other British code-breaking and emulating machines were demolished and/or recycled for parts and their blueprints destroyed, leaving a hole in the history of the British WWII code breaking. Efforts to rebuild the British Tunny emulator started in the 1990s, and quite recently <a href="http://tnmoc.org/36/section.aspx/201">a Tunny emulator replica was completed</a>. The German military had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_cryptography#Germany">a number of different encrypted communications systems</a>, from the relatively simple <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_%28machine%29#Military_Enigma">modified German military version</a> of the <a href="http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:_38NO-ByG5UJ:www.apprendre-en-ligne.net/crypto/bibliotheque/PDF/KruhDeavours.pdf+commercial+enigma+beginnings+machine+cryptography&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiQe9viHSmV7N8RLNTbhJSQI51TCBwbWXmxB15Eax8pPcW75c60MxyrXCbkJe2NLBi0X58tlRInUbG37FIIa7rTOvCk2xWEHyOIZL7_xqcYc0QXITnLSYOL6ZUzFdDNKIMaWzxu&sig=AHIEtbQErALjhDZnClA5BmBi6ZULrbLliw">commercially-available Enigma machine</a> (Google Quickview / <a href="http://www.apprendre-en-ligne.net/crypto/bibliotheque/PDF/KruhDeavours.pdf">PDF</a>). The more complex systems were based on <a href="http://www.teleprinter.net/english/index.html">teleprinters</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter">wiki</a>).
<a href="http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9jpG8TNVeM4J:cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/pubs/sturgeon.pdf+Siemens+T43+thrasher&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgbUQlkl1CSrIj3YJ201FmuPbvOz5fRwWK3CLIYBaNFpAmaVphTqiY7BRj1Ts67n6ee6iuvmH13Bho4w9BgubV1oIvGLMLNT5asYRk_-V9bPAGdvnRVRlvITTYNv0jOIR7k3HP3&sig=AHIEtbRmBxtlaUtOhosqMTgvAeVlhWj-Qg">The Germans had three different types of teleprinter cipher machines</a> (Google Quickview / <a href="http://cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/pubs/sturgeon.pdf">PDF</a>) : three models of the Lorenz system, dubbed Tunny by the British; various models of the Siemens &amp; Halske Schlüsselfernschreibmaschine (SFM), named Sturgen by the British; and the Siemens T43, which may have been the unbroken system nicknamed Thrasher. Tunny was used by the German army, while Sturgen was used by the navy and air force. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=e6ocfloTkJ4C&lpg=PT371&ots=W23O-lRYUk&pg=PT371#v=onepage&f=false">The German nickname for the special teleprinter equipment was Sägefisch</a> (sawfish), which is the source of the Fish nickname in England, and the subsequent fish-related nicknames for specific systems.
When the British first found the "fish" messages, they realized these communications were quite important messages. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_cipher#Cryptanalysis">The first break in Tunny came on August 30, 1941</a>, when a German operator missed a message on first transmission and asked, in plaintext, that the message be re-sent. The key setting was the same and the message was largely similar, allowing British cryptographers to figure out the operations of the cipher machine without seeing it. About five months later, the Tunny emulator was built, allowing cipher text to be decrypted, once the decoding settings were figured out by hand.
The first attempt to speed up the process was <a href="http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/hrob/hrrindex.htm">Heath Robinson</a>, a mechanical method of figuring out the decoder settings. The second is the world's first programmable electronic computer, <a href="http://www.colossus-computer.com/colossus1.html">Colossus</a>, and made by <a href="http://www.ivorcatt.com/47c.htm">Thomas Harold Flowers</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Flowers">MBE</a>) at the <a href="http://www.hansswift.com/genealogy/stories/Dollis%20Hill.htm">Dollis Hill Post Office Research Station</a>. A number of Colossi were built, and all of these machines were dismantled at the end of the war, to guard against their secrets becoming known.
By finding scraps of information and picking the memories of those who made and worked with the machines With the re-creation of the Tunny emulator, <a href="http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/after-hours/2011/05/26/tunny-code-breaker-rebuilt-at-bletchley-park-40092902/">Bletchley Park once again has a complete set of re-created decrypting machines</a> (photos of the exhibit at <a href="http://www.tnmoc.org/">The National Museum of Computing</a>, itself located at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park">Bletchley Park</a>).
More interesting details and rabbit trails:
* <a href="http://cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/tutte.html">The Fish and I</a>, Professor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Tutte">William T. Tutte</a>'s paper on FISH, as presented at the opening ceremony of Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research</a> at the <a href="http://www.uwaterloo.ca/">University of Waterloo</a>. This paper is just one of the many fascinating features at <a href="http://cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/default.html">Frode Weierud's CryptoCellar</a>.
* <a href="http://www.codesandciphers.co.uk/index.htm">WW II Codes and Ciphers</a>, Tony Sale's website on the Colossus and Tunny rebuild efforts, Enigma, and other related topics.
* <a href="http://www.metafilter.com/72281/An-introduction-to-Bletchley-Park">An introduction to Bletchley Park</a>, a 2008 MetaFilter post. tag:metafilter.com,2011:site.104057Mon, 30 May 2011 13:55:15 -0800filthy light thiefEnglandspiel - or 'Germany Game'http://www.metafilter.com/53669/Englandspiel%2Dor%2DGermany%2DGame
Secret agent Huub Lauwers was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3324807.stm">parachuted into occupied Holland</a> in 1941 to relay intelligence back to London. His capture by the Germans marked the beginning of the <abbr title="German, lit. 'England Game'">Englandspiel</abbr>, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse intelligence that cost the lives of over fifty agents. Lauwers frantically tried to inform the <abbr title="Special Operations Executive, British WWII intelligence organisation">SOE</abbr> that he had been caught, but the <a href="http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/WWII/SOEhistory.html">Baker Street Irregulars</a> just didn't get it. Or <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/13/nsoe13.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/13/ixhome.html">did</a> <a href="http://worldofwarre.blogspot.com/2006/02/cog-in-allys-war-machine.html">they?</a> <small>[more inside]</small> tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.53669Sun, 06 Aug 2006 15:46:23 -0800goodnewsfortheinsaneJohannes Matthaeus Koelz: A Life Dividedhttp://www.metafilter.com/30199/Johannes%2DMatthaeus%2DKoelz%2DA%2DLife%2DDivided
<a href="http://www.koelz.org.uk/">Johannes Matthaeus Koelz: A Life Divided.</a> An artist who escaped to England from Nazi Germany. From the <a href="http://www.koelz.org.uk/leicester-exhibiton.html">exhibition</a> :-<br>'Koelz, a painter, was living in a small cottage in the Bavarian forest estate of Hohenbrunn. One morning he travelled to nearby Munich on a routine visit to police headquarters to renew his exit visa for a planned trip to Italy.'<br>'At some point during the following night Koelz instructed a young man from the local woodmill to take his major work - a triptych which had occupied him since the early 1930s and cut it into pieces. He left Hohenbrunn at dawn, arranging for his family to follow ... It was the first stop on a journey that would take them to England. '<br>'Meanwhile the state police had raided their home and interrogated family members left behind. They were searching for the painter and his triptych, a massive anti-war painting which not only questioned the horrors of war but also the rising power of the Nationalist Socialist Party and by implication, its leader, Adolf Hitler.'<br><a href="http://www.koelz.org.uk/triptych.html">'Thou Shalt Not Kill'</a>, Koelz's tryptych.<br><a href="http://www.koelz.org.uk/koelz-history.html">Timeline
and artworks.</a> tag:metafilter.com,2003:site.30199Fri, 12 Dec 2003 12:33:41 -0800plepEngland 5 Germany 1http://www.metafilter.com/9806/England%2D5%2DGermany%2D1
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/football/newsid_1515000/1515667.stm">England 5 Germany 1</a> there is a god, and his name is Michael Owen tag:metafilter.com,2001:site.9806Sat, 01 Sep 2001 12:59:56 -0800quarsan